Where to Find Street Art in Phoenix

By now I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I'm a BIG fan of street art. 

I'm also a big fan of traveling. 

So when I come across fun street art while on vacation I'm in heaven! Nothing like combining two of your favorite things, right?

Our recent trip to Phoenix, Arizona over Spring Break turned out to be one such trip. I already knew that Phoenix was home to some pretty great street art, but I was not prepared for just how much of it there would be. Spoiler alert... Phoenix has a LOT of street art!

Today I'm sharing some of my favorite street art finds from our time in Phoenix. 

There's a lot of great street art to be found all throughout Phoenix, and taking a drive or walk in ay direction is sure to lead you to some colorful walls. It was pretty hot already when we visited Phoenix over Spring Break and it's a pretty sprawled city, so before we headed out for the day I did a little research online and found particular murals and areas I wanted to go check out. Usually I'm more of a "wander around and see what we find" kind of girl, but I'm also not a fan of heat, so being prepared made things a lot easier.

Here are some of the must see murals around Phoenix...

Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona

When you think of a desert what springs to mind? 

For most of us sand and cacti are probably the first two things we think of. But what about colorful flowers, trees and bushes? What about swathes of lush, green plant life? These may not be what comes to mind when we think of deserts, but there is a wealth of plant life that thrives in desert conditions and it can be all of these things. 

During our recent Spring Break we took a road trip to Phoenix, Arizona to visit friends. While we were there we spent half a day exploring Desert Botanical Gardens and it was absolutely stunning. A desert botanical garden may sound like a bit of an oxymoron, but trust me, this is one botanical garden that will blow you away.

Now, you're probably looking at that photo below and thinking "Hey, that looks like glass". And you'd be right! Desert Botanical Garden is currently home to "Chihuly in the Desert" an exhibition by famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. Chihuly's glass sculptures can be found dotted around the gardens where their organic shapes add an extra touch of whimsy to an already magical landscape. What I love about this exhibition is that the striking glass sculptures add to the landscape without taking away from the natural beauty. They work so perfectly in unison. 

Desert Botanical Garden is quite large with over 50,000 outdoor plant displays spread over 55 acres. Visitors will also find a butterfly pavilion, an onsite restaurant and café, several learning centers and exhibition spaces, and of course, a gift shop. Restrooms and hydration stations are also dotted around the gardens. It gets pretty hot in Arizona (it was already in the 90s when we visited in March) so you'll definitely want to make use of those hydration stations!

The gardens are wheelchair and stroller accessible with wide trails winding through the different areas. The trails vary in length from 1/10 mile to 1/3 mile with each focusing on a particular theme including desert wildflowers, plants and people of the Sonoran Desert and the Sonoran Desert Nature Loop. I took so many photos during our visit that I can't remember which ones are from which trail, but believe me when I say that all of the trails are worth walking. My photos will be a little mixed up, but if you really want to know which trail a particular photo was taken on let me know and I'll try to work it out.

Ok, let's take a look around Desert Botanical Garden...

Spring at Tivoli Gardens

Yesterday Tivoli, also known as Tivoli Gardens, in Copenhagen, Denmark officially opened for the season. When I saw the celebrations on Instagram it reminded me of our visit to Copenhagen over Spring Break in 2017 and the fact that I'm still yet to post anything about it here on the blog. 

We lucked out with the timing of our trip and while Tivoli Gardens was closed for much of our stay, it opened for the season on our last full day in Denmark. With such perfect timing we knew that we had to spend the day there. 

At first I'd been a little unsure about visiting Tivoli Gardens as theme parks generally aren't our thing when we travel, but after walking past the stunning entry gate several times a day I just knew that we needed to visit. I'm so glad we did! There's something much more whimsical about European theme parks that American theme parks are missing, and no where is this more true than Tivoli Gardens. The scale is much smaller but that adds to the charm. The smaller scale feels much more personable and less overwhelming. While a full day is definitely needed, there's less rush to try and squeeze in everything. The historic buildings add a feeling of stepping back in time, and beloved sideshow amusements remind us that sometimes simpler, old fashioned fun is better than high tech.

This sense of old world charm is not fabricated like what you'd find in many popular theme parks around the world. Tivoli Gardens opened in October 1843 and is the third oldest amusement park in the world. It has been delighting Danish families, and tourists like us, for almost one hundred and eighty years with stunning gardens, fun amusements, rollercoasters, classic fairground rides, playgrounds, restaurants, and performances including ballet, pantomimes and jazz concerts.

Easter is a particularly special time of year to visit Tivoli Gardens. With the arrival of Spring the park's many garden beds are filled with an abundance of blooming flowers. Tulips, daffodils and hyacinths add color and perfume to the gardens, while a sprinkling of the season's first leaves and blossoms grow on the mostly still bare trees above. Elaborate oversized Easter eggs can be found all throughout the park. When the sun goes down the park lights up with twinkling fairy lights and stunning lanterns.

Let's take a look at our visit...

Immersive Art in Denver

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of immersive art. If you've been here a while, or if you follow along on Instagram, you're sure to have seen a lot of immersive art featured in my posts.

 
We're lucky here in Colorado that there are quite a few permanent (or long term pop up) immersive art exhibitions. They're a great place to spend an hour or two on a cold day (or a hot day - Summers here are HOT) and they're a lot of fun. Plus you get to come home with creative photos that you can't get anywhere else.

Today I'm sharing a round up of my favorite immersive art exhibitions in and around Denver. 

Let's take a look...

Our Midwest Summer Road Trip

Ok, I started writing this post last Summer, but as usual six months later it's still not done. If you see any references to our "recent" Summer trip, just pretend it's still August 2021!

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Did you travel anywhere last Summer? 

Over the end of June and start of July we took a two and a half week road trip through the Midwest and explored some new to us cities, towns and well known locations. The main destination of our trip was Chicago. I'd been wanting to visit Chicago for such a long time, and we had actually planned to spend Spring Break there in 2020 - but we all know why that didn't happen! I'm so happy we finally made it there this past Summer and it's one of my new favorite cities. We'll definitely be back!  

Originally we thought about flying to Chicago or even taking the overnight Amtrak train from Denver, but ultimately settled on making it a road trip. I figured that while we were right by the Great Lakes it would be nice to explore the area a little more and we'd need a car for that. The original plan was to take the sleeper train to Chicago (something we've never done before) and then get a rental car to explore the Great Lakes after a week in the Windy City, but with rental cars being a hot commodity last Summer and there being no guarantee that a booking would actually stick (no matter how high the price) we figured it was safest to take our own car. Driving from home also gave us the freedom to add in some extra stops along the way, extra space for luggage (our minivan fits a LOT), and no need to lug around car seats to use in a rental.

As well as Chicago, our trip included Detroit, St Louis, Kansas City, Mackinac Island, Mount Rushmore and more.  We drove through ten states on this trip: Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Kansas. I've got a lot of new states to cross off my list! We visited world famous landmarks, stopped at quirky roadside attractions, ate all sorts of new to us foods, crossed mighty rivers, took in lots of art, visited amazing museums, and caught up with friends. Our good friends from New York met up with us in Chicago and spent the better part of two weeks with us before we went our separate ways to head home. It was so good to catch up with them and the kids love having other kids to play with when we travel. This was our third Summer trip together so it's become something of a tradition. Last year they stayed with us in Colorado and a few Summers back we spent time with them in New York before traveling to Boston together.    

 

Here's a look at the route we took for this road trip. We added in some detours to visit various places rather than driving the most direct route. Google tells me that it was about fifty two hours of driving all up - and I can tell you that it definitely felt that way! Most of our driving days were around six hours of driving, but there were a few nine hour drives thrown in towards the end. While it was nice to be able to add in a few destinations that wouldn't otherwise be on our radar, I've got to say that the driving part of road trips is definitely not the highlight. Who ever came up with that "It's about the journey, not the destination" phrase clearly did not spend 50 hours in a car driving through the mid-west! It's always about the destination if you ask me!

Let's take a look at our trip day by day...